Job Attitudes Notes

Job Attitudes

Topics for Consideration

• What is the relationship between ability and job performance?

• What determines attitude?

  • Attitudes are affected by factors such as personality, social influences, and direct experiences. Understanding these determinants can help in predicting and managing employee attitudes.

• What are the causes and consequences of job satisfaction?

  • Job satisfaction is influenced by various factors, including work conditions, relationships with colleagues, and perceived fairness. Its consequences can range from increased productivity to decreased turnover.

• How can managers shape behaviors of others?

  • Managers can shape behaviors through various techniques such as positive reinforcement, constructive feedback, and role modeling.

Individual Capacity

Ability

• Intellectual Ability

  • A broad term encompassing various cognitive capabilities.

• Physical Ability

  • The capacity to perform physical tasks, such as strength, endurance, and coordination.

• Self-Awareness

  • Understanding one's own emotions, strengths, and weaknesses.

• Multiple Intelligences

  • Howard Gardner's theory suggests individuals possess different types of intelligences, such as linguistic, logical-mathematical, and spatial.

Dimensions of Intellectual Ability

• Number aptitude

  • Ability to handle mathematical operations and numerical data efficiently.

• Verbal comprehension

  • Ability to understand and interpret written or spoken language.

• Perceptual speed

  • Ability to quickly and accurately compare letters, numbers, objects, or patterns.

• Inductive reasoning

  • Ability to identify a logical rule to then find the answer for a problem.

• Deductive reasoning

  • Ability to use logic and assess the implications of an argument.

• Spatial visualization

  • Ability to imagine how an object would look if its position in space were changed.

• Memory

  • Ability to retain and recall past experiences.

Multiple Intelligences

• Cognitive

  • Involves mental processes such as reasoning, memory, and problem-solving.

• Social

  • Refers to the ability to understand and interact effectively with others.

• Emotional

  • Involves the ability to recognize, understand, and manage one's own emotions and the emotions of others.

• Cultural

  • The awareness and understanding of cultural differences and the ability to interact effectively with people from different cultural backgrounds.

The Ability-Job Fit

• Employee's Abilities should fit the Job's Ability Requirements.

  • When there is a good fit between an employee's abilities and the job's requirements, employees are more likely to be satisfied and perform well.

Attitudes

• Attitudes are evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people, or events.

  • Attitudes can be positive, negative, or neutral, and they influence our behavior and decisions.

• Affective Component: The emotional or feeling segment of an attitude.

  • This component reflects how we feel about something, such as liking or disliking a particular policy.

• Cognitive Component: The opinion or belief segment of an attitude.

  • This component represents our beliefs about an object, person, or event, which may or may not be accurate.

• Behavioral Component: An intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something.

  • This component refers to our inclination to act in a certain way based on our attitudes.

The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

An inconsistency that an individual might perceive between two or more attitudes, or between behavior and attitudes.

• Cognitive dissonance can create discomfort, motivating individuals to reduce the dissonance through various means.

Desire to reduce dissonance depends on:

• Importance of items creating dissonance

  • The more important the elements creating dissonance, the greater the motivation to reduce it.

• Degree of individual influence over elements

  • If individuals feel they have little control over the elements causing dissonance, they are less likely to try to reduce it.

• Rewards involved in dissonance

  • High rewards associated with the dissonance may reduce the motivation to resolve it.

Measuring the A-B Relationship

• Recent research indicates that attitudes (A) significantly predict behaviors (B) when moderating variables are taken into account.

  • Moderating variables can influence the strength of the attitude-behavior relationship.

• A \rightarrow B

  • Indicates that attitudes influence behavior.

Self-Perception Theory

• Attitudes are used after the fact to make sense out of an action that has already occurred.

  • Individuals observe their own behavior and infer their attitudes based on those observations.

• B \rightarrow A

  • Suggests that behavior influences attitudes.

Types of Job Attitudes

• Job Satisfaction

  • A positive feeling about one's job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics.

• Job Involvement

  • The degree to which a person identifies with a job, actively participates in it, and considers performance important for self-worth.

• Organizational Commitment

  • The degree to which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organization.

• Perceived Organizational Support

  • The degree to which employees believe the organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being.

• Employee Engagement

  • An individual's involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the work he or she does.

Causes of Job Satisfaction

• I ♥ my job

  • Job satisfaction is influenced by various factors, including pay, promotion opportunities, relationships with coworkers, and work conditions.

How Employees Can Express Dissatisfaction

• Exit: Behavior directed toward leaving the organization.

  • Includes looking for a new position as well as resigning.

• Voice: Active and constructive attempts to improve conditions.

  • Includes suggesting improvements, discussing problems with superiors, and some forms of union activity.

• Neglect: Allowing conditions to worsen.

  • Includes chronic absenteeism or lateness, reduced effort, and increased error rate.

• Loyalty: Passively waiting for conditions to improve.

  • Includes speaking up for the organization in the face of criticism and trusting the organization to "do the right thing."

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